In my PR experience, it’s best to start with the 5 W’s… and you are already aware of the what. You’re planning your wedding. (Yay!)

WHATWHEREWHEN WHO WHY (HOW)

You can totally figure this out.

When

My first thought about when to have our wedding was NYE. I knew a few people who had a rockin’ NYE wedding and I thought what better time to host a bash?

Holidays, travel, and potentially inclement weather in Chicago brought us back to reality. We moved on and settled on looking at 2014 dates in Feb-March-April. Spring seemed like a fabulous time to celebrate our wedding next year and in years to come. Flowers could be blooming or snow could be falling, but the chances of a travel headaches were far less than NYE. It gave us ample time to plan without feeling rushed, so we started the process right away.

Where

If you’re planning to be married in a church or place of worship, go straight to the source. It’s best to determine the ceremony “where” and “when” first, and you can determine the reception location afterward.

Some churches allow only parishoners to celebrate a wedding there. Others will welcome you with open arms, no matter where you belong. It all depends, but you never know if you don’t ask. Wise words from my pops.

Go online, call the parish offices, ask to speak to the wedding coordinator, ask about the dates you’re interested in. Or ask them about available dates.

If you are providing a one-stop shop for ceremony and reception, good for you. Way to be efficient! The events point of contact at the reception location will be more than happy to help you plan your wedding. Be prepared for the astonishing food and bev minimums! Put on your poker face.

We are getting married in Chicago, but live in South Carolina. It can take some creative finagling to plan an out of town wedding, but I haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t survive the process.

Life is for celebrating. Things come up. Friends come down (to visit). A proper toast to good health and happiness is certainly uplifting on its own, but with something sparkly in hand? It’s even better.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, but when great things are happening, toast to them!

What will you vow for yourself? What will you always have on hand? What will make your day bubbly?

If I were to host a wedding planning brunch (complete with mimosas), I’d invite Kate Spade for her classic ways, Ina Garten for her delightful and calm demeanor, Nate Berkus for his fabulous style, my mom for her touch of tradition, and my sister for her creativity and always-fun mantra. Who’s style will you borrow?

I’m engaged! So very pumped, and I’ve officially entered into the world of wedding planning. Yikes.

I love a good party, and I enjoy planning fun events, too, but this whole wedding thing is very different from anything I’ve experienced. It’s all about you, or at least it feels that way. For some, that may be a bit daunting (read: yes, I’m talking about me). And you know what? It’s all good.

After we got engaged, we were fortunate enough to be lovingly attacked by questions about dates, dresses and locations. All of which required answers we didn’t have.

Piece of advice No. 1: Enjoy your engagement. There is plenty to follow when it comes to details, but just take it all in. Wise words from my hubby-to-be: just remember, we only have to do this once. He was referring to the four hours of phone calls we made post-engagement.

Advice No. 2: Be a good communicator. MAF (my awesome fiancé) hired a photographer to capture our engagement moment (totally amazing and thoughtful, I concur). The photographer had told MAF that he would post some photos from this awesome surprise as soon as he got back to the studio. Where did he post, you ask? Facebook. Never would I have fathomed communicating this news via Facebook, but times are a changin! If you care to call your family, friends and college roommates before their newsfeed updates, do yourself a solid and micromanage your social media. Turn off your photos temporarily, or make your profile private until you called the people who can still communicate without the assistance of Mark Zuckerberg.

Advice No. 3: Be happy for yourself, the rest is gravy. I have amazing friends. We are all in the same book, but we are on separate pages. That is okay. If you are happy, others will be, too. Some friends are in the midst of wedding season, and your engagement news = dollar signs. Others are sick of the annoyingly awful dates that OkayCupid has produced, and while your news is awesome, they are reminded of their lack of significant spooner. Whatever the case may be, whatever bad mood someone is in—don’t let it get you down. If you are happy, that’s all that matters. We all have moments of weakness, don’t let someone else rain on your parade.

The whole wedding process can be overwhelming, and I found myself part of that camp. I’m talking process. Not just planning your wedding, at times I feel fairly clueless about the whole shabang. I’m part of the earlier crew of engaged ladies in my group, which is cool and kind of terrifying.

I was surprised, I’ll admit, as I searched for blogs, books and wise wedded ladies online. I found really detailed info (helpful at times), or things that just didn’t suit my style (hello life on pinterest). Maybe I didn’t google long enough, but I just wanted a friendly voice full of cool ideas and mild mind-reading.

This is my answer to what I was searching for, I hope you’ll join me on my wedding adventure. I can guarantee highs and lows, and total Liz Lemon moments.